Rielee 5th grade

 1st day of 5th grade for Rielee and she got to wear tiny "dangly" earrings, she looked so cute and grown up.

 Jillian and Bridget came to play this morning. The girls play together so well, Jillian and Bridget did some crafting,

 while Ava and Bridget played with Barbies.  Then they all dressed up and had a dance party.

 The twins saw James drive up at Alan's and flew out of the house to see him.  Then James and Alan came over and visited.  The girls did their best job of "entertaining" - meaning they were being silly and doing all they could for a laugh.  When Ava brought her phone out, James asked her if that was the new iPhone 7. 

He played some balloon games with them, too, and they were happy to hear that they would see him tomorrow,  he'll be back at Alan's to work on his car.

Macee volleyball

 Macee playing in the UW game during the NW Challenge in Spokane, they lost, but it was sure fun seeing her play.  The Zags went on to beat Boise St. and Portland.

 Rielee posing with her buddy Spike, the Bulldog mascot.

 I think he liked her, he kept coming by,

and when he did the t-shirt toss, he made sure one came her way, actually it went past Rielee but a Boise State fan caught it and gave it to her.  It was a large and way too big for her but another fan traded her for a small, so she was really happy.

Meet the teacher night

 We took the girls back and met Charb, Kelly, Luke and Lexi for Meet the Teacher Night.  On the way, they were so excited, Harper said she just couldn't wait to see Illahee again and was going to kiss and hug it when she got there, they screamed with happiness when we pulled in the parking lot.  In their room, they picked up their names and got a "Gotcha" from Mrs. Miller,  

  then picked out their desks.  They found a friend that was in their class last year and the three of them sat together.  Looks like it's going to be a fun year for them.

Happy 1st graders!

Emily, swimming

 Emily came to play for the day, and did they ever play.  Ponies, Barbies, scooters, play fort,

 and a short but sweet trip to the pool.  They played hard there, too, they had to-the water was a chilly 77 degrees.  They had a cannonball contest,

 did crazy jumps,

 and played jump-the-noodle.

Such a sweet little face.

Ava was content to ride around on her noodle and play quieter water games. 

At the park

We went back to Lake Sacajawea today so they could play and they wanted to wear their "high heels".  Ava changed to flip flops right away, but Harper insisted she could climb better in heels.  Ava ran into the same little girl she had befriended last week and Harper made a friend, too.  It was cute, Ava's friend got a scratch on her leg and boy, Ava was right there checking it out with the girl's mother and then ran to me to get a band aid for her. 

Bird feather and cow feeding

 Harper found a feather out in the yard and went tearing in the house to solve the mystery of which kind of bird lost it.  We found the two of them in Papa's chair, wearing his glasses, studying birds in the bird-song book.  They finally found one that looked right.

 Feeding apples to the cows was good entertainment, for awhile, until one of them went potty, which grossed out Harper.  The other kids thought it didn't smell bad-kind of like apple juice...

Rielee tried many times to let the cow eat the apple from her hand like her friend Sydney had, but she just couldn't do it and settled for petting it a little.

Lake Sacajawea

Harper giving Ava a spin at the playground at Lake Sacajawea. 

They had a lots of fun, it has a very large play structure with lots of different stuff to climb on.

Rescuing the teacher

 At the end of the lesson today they learned how to rescue someone in the pool, at first they all tried to jump in and save the teacher,

but she showed them the correct way is to lie on their tummies and grab her hand.

Swim lessons, shopping, Rielee's pool party

Butter, butter, pop - "Who wants to go first?"

Swimming lessons went well today, Ava did a perfect beaver dive and Harper went down the pole and sat on the bottom.  Both of them had a little trouble with putting their faces in the water for 5 seconds, they practiced in the tub tonight so they can do better tomorrow.

 We stopped at Target on the way home from swimming lessons and got some of their school supplies, and a couple of small toys, too.

 Harper's adventures in driving... 

 

 Rielee's cousin pool party-Emily, Max, Harper (mostly in the water) and Isaac to the right of Rielee, doing a crazy jump.  It got a little too rowdy for Ava so she went home early to hang out with Papa.

Baking day

Rielee and Nettie (she spent the night) with the girls after their 2nd show of the morning, they had helped them dress-up and fixed their hair and make-up.  After that, it was on to baking.  Rielee and Nettie found a recipe on the Food Network website for vanilla cupcakes,

 they turned out really well.  Ava and Harper helped me make cinnamon rolls and cardamom bread.

They played a game of UNO, and went outside to drive the Jeep and ride scooters and bikes, too. 

Pool fun

 Ava feeding the "ducks" Cheetos, and what a loud bunch of ducks they were.  Emily came up to play with the girls, they swam, played dress-up, washed rocks and played at the play fort. 

A busy and fun day. 

Auna came over in the evening just as I was starting on the girls' mani/pedis, I was so grateful when she said she would help me, it went so much faster and she does a much better job than I do.

Swim lessons round 2

Ava and Harper started another session of swim lessons at the Y this week.  They worked a lot on

 floating and swimming on their backs today, doing "monkey, star, banana" to learn to stroke.  They have the same great teacher and love going there.

Sometimes these three get so rowdy playing on the hammock that I have to stop them completely.  Since they went to bed early last night and slept for 11 1/2 hours they got to stay up tonight with Rielee and watch a movie.  After the movie it was still early so they chose to watch "Cupcake Wars" which surprised me, but they really got into it, and were cheering for their favorite bakers.

Gourde girls beach trip

 We took the kids to Ocean Park Thursday and spent the night at Cathy and Bob's beach house.  They spent the first couple of hours just settling in,  choosing their beds and playing doctor since Ava brought her doctor bag.  Everyone got a thorough check-up.

 Then it was time for the beach, it was so nice and warm and no wind.  They had a ball.

Harper with a big jump over a tiny wave.

After the beach, Rielee rode a bike and the girls their scooters down to the ice cream place, the girls had cones and Papa got a huge banana split.  We went for several bike and scooter rides around town, amazingly with only 1 scooter wreck, Ava bit it and got some road rash, plus we had a run-in with 3 nasty little dogs.  Scared the heck out of all of us, fortunately the owner came out and saved us from getting bit.  Ava and Harper learned how to play UNO, they loved it and wanted to play it over and over.

6th Birthday Party at home

Harper and Ava had their big birthday party at home today.  Diane made their cute princess dress cupcake cakes, and they got to wear the crowns afterwards!

They got lots of great gifts. The puppy purses filled with goodies from Becky and Bruce were a hit!

They're all getting so big!  Someone asked Ava today how it felt to be 6, she said she really didn't feel 6 at all!  Such great kids, they really a fun day playing with all their friends and family.